After a mostly cloudy June, it looks like the dog days of summer are upon us. Weather forecasts are predicting sunshine and near-90-degree weather for at least the next two weeks in Vancouver, though it remains to be seen just how hot things are going to get.
Amanda Bowen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that temperatures are “ever so slightly cooler” than they were predicted to be Monday morning.
“It does look like we’ll be at least in the mid-80s for the next couple of weeks,” she said. “The number of days in the 90s is yet to be seen.”
Overnight lows will be near 60 degrees.
While Bowen said that this summer had so far been cooler than the previous two, and that temperatures were nowhere near record-breaking, it was part of a trend of increasingly warm summers in the Pacific Northwest.
“The past number of summers, we’ve had at least a couple of days that we hit 100 degrees, and we’re not talking anything nearly that hot,” she said. “But probably looking historically, this would be less common to see a long period of mid-80s or higher.”
Bowen said that “conditions will be primed” for another wildfire, such as the Eagle Creek Fire that devastated the Columbia River Gorge in September. However, owing to the lack of wind in the forecast — something that helped the Eagle Creek Fire spread so quickly — Bowen said that there were no major fire concerns.
“You need something to actually start wildfires,” such as lightning, Bowen said. “Right now, it’s not looking like we’re going to have any lightning, at least in our forecast area.”
Bowen advised people to stay cool during the day by staying hydrated. For those without air conditioning, Bowen suggested going to a public place with air conditioning, such as a library or a recreation center, and to cool off at night by sleeping with the windows open.
Overall, Bowen said, the heat wave should not be of much concern to the general population.
“There shouldn’t be a lot of extra impact beyond a regular warm day,” she said.
